Synchronized rolling eyes for dolls



Jan. 14, 1969 BRUDNEY SYNCHRONIZED ROLLING EYES FOR DOLLS Filed Feb. 23, 1966 SLOTTED FIG. 6

INVENTOR HARRY BRUDNEY FIG. 5

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,421,255 SYNCHRONIZED ROLLING EYES FOR DOLLS Harry Brudney, New York, N.Y., assignor to Dollac Division, Jacoby-Beader, Inc., Woodside, N.Y. Filed Feb. 23, 1966, Ser. No. 529,543 US. Cl. 46167 9 Claims Int. Cl. A63h 3/40 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to doll eyes and more particularly to eyes that roll or swivel from left to right when the doll head is swung or rotated on a generally vertical axis, wherein motion is induced by weighting of pivotal eyeballs. The prime feature of the invention herein is to link the rotative eyeballs of a pair of unit doll eyes for effecting synchronized motion.

Among the objects of the invention are to provide a simple and economic construction for rolling eyes wherein the eyes are synchronized so as to roll left or right in unison; to provide synchronized rolling eyes wherein each eye is an integral unit insertable in a respective molded cavity of a doll head of conventional construction; to reduce labor in assembling the eyes of the invention in a conventional doll head of the soft vinyl type. Other objects or features of the invention will be apparent from the description that follows.

In general, the objects of the invention pertain to overcoming various drawbacks of the prior art wherein many attempts have been made to produce rolling eyes but wherein poor commercial results have been achieved, due to complexity, expense, lack of synchronization of movement of the eyes, the need for specially shaped doll heads and supports for the eyes, the considerable labor necessary for assembly, and other factors.

The present invention overcomes all of these drawbacks by the use of unitary rolling eyes of the kind shown in my prior US. Patent 2,931,138, issued Apr. 5, 1960. This patent shows a very compact and simple unitary rolling eye wherein an eyeball of molded plastic having a pair of diametrically opposed support arms integrally molded therewith carry a weight. The eyeball is pivoted in a vertical plane whence rotation of the doll head effects a rolling of the eyes by virtue of the inertia of the weight. Such unit eyes are usable with conventional vinyl doll head eye cavities or sockets, but present a problem in that the eyes did not completely synchronize in their swiveling motion. The present invention provides a very simple and economical mode of effecting such synchronization by means of a pivotal lever carried by the rear casing of each eye unit where a relatively long portion of such lever is articulated to the respective weight element and a relatively short portion of such lever extends rearwardly of the rear casing. A motion synchronizing bar extending between the shortened portions and pivotally connected thereto effects parallelogram linkage which insures synchronization of rolling motion of the eyes.

A detailed description of the invention now follows in conjunction with the appended drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a horizontal section through an eyeball illustrating the components of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal section through a doll head showing the eyes of the invention in assembly therewith.

FIG. 3 is an elevation looking at the assembled eyes of the invention from the rear.

FIG. 3a is a fragmentary rear view, partially in section of the lever and weight.

FIG. 4, is a fragmentary plan view, partially in section, of the lever and weight.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary section in elevation of the rear casing of the eye showing how it is stamped to create a pivot for the lever.

FIG. 6 is an amplified rear view of an eye showing the lever assembled thereto partially in section.

Referring to the drawing and particularly FIG. 1, the invention comprises a construction essentially the same as in the patent referred to hereinabove and such patent may be referred to for details unnecessary to the present disclosure. Thus FIG. 6 of the aforementioned patent shows a vertical elevation partially in section illustrating an integrally molded eyeball with trunnions and weight supporting arms. All such elements are shown in the present disclosure (FIGS. 1, 3, 312) such as the eyeball 10, trunnions 12, arm 15, weight 18, in a housing comprising front shell 22 and frictionally gripping each other in a telescopic manner all as hereinbefore conventionally known. The trunnions, of course, are socketed in suitable bearing housings 28 so as to have free play therein such as is well known in the prior art, for example, as shown in my US. Patents 2,963,818 and 3,224,140 or in any other well-known manner.

Carried by the rear casing is a lever 30 which is pivoted on a tongue 33 (FIGS. 5 and 6) struck from the material of the casing. The lever is very freely pivotal on the tongue 33 having an aperture 36 through which protrudes a small trunnion 39 formed at the top edge of tongue 33 so that the shoulders 42 (FIG. 6) at such top edge support the outer end of the lever. The inner end of the lever extends through a slot 45 in weight 18 which slot is somewhat wider than the wdith of the lever in order to allow for free play as the lever rocks back and forth from the solid line to the phantom line position, as illustrated in FIG. 1. The outer end of the lever extends through a slot 47 cut at the rear of the molded eye cavity 47' of doll head H.

It will be understood that the lever can rock left or right of the solid line position. Thus as the eyeball swivels on the axis of trunnion 12, in a manner well understood from my aforementioned Patent 2,931,138, the lever is caused to rock in a direction opposite to the swinging direction of the eyeball.

The lever is a small metal stamping of negligible weight so that it does not impede movement of the eyeball and the free play provided by the slot 45 prevents any frictional or interfering action which might lock the movement of the eyeball. The trunnion 39 is fairly loose within the aperture 36 to eliminate any frictional problem and the rectangularity of the trunnion does not aflfect free swinging of the lever.

It will be noted that the portion of the lever extending rearwardly of casing 25 is much shorter than the portion extending through weight 18. Accordingly, a large arcuate movement of the inner end of the lever takes place compared to the small arcuate movement of the outer end, and only a small slot 47 is required. A large slot 47 would result in poor frictional gripping of the cavity walls on the eye unit and the unit would soon work out of proper position.

A synchronizing member which is merely a wire clip 48 ties the ends of levers 30 together so that the eyes swivel in unison. Thus each lever has an outer aperture 50 through which protrudes a clip-like end 55 of the wire clip 48. The wire clip member 48 has a bent loop portion 158 which serves as gripping means for a tool in assembling the clip ends 55 to respective levers and furthermore effects the considerable advantage that the length of clip member 48 between end clips 55 can be varied by expanding or compressing the loop 58 to thus accommodate the distance between end clips 55 to eyes assembled in doll heads which vary in various models between centers of the eye receiving cavities. This is an important feature since in practice it has "been found difficult with constructions of the prior art to compensate for such center to center variations and the present invention overcomes such drawback in an exceedingly simple manner.

From the above description it will be apparent that the eyeballs will swivel in unison with each other by virtue of synchronization afiorded by the clip member 48.

Further, the relative lengths of the levers 30 between the portions inside the eye units and the external portions provides a mechanical advantage so that the action of the Weights 18 can readily overcome any inertia of member 48 or friction on shoulders 33, which are important considerations from a standpoint of eliminating sluggishness and ensuring sensitive action.

A particularly economic and simplifying feature of the invention resides in the rear casing support for the lever. Thus as seen in FIG. 5 the tongue 33, after being separated on three sides from the material of which it is formed by a stamping die, is bent outwardly so that a lever 30 can be mounted on it through the aperture 36. The tongue 33 is then bent back into the plane from which it was struck thus locking the lever in pivot-ally supported condition on the rear wall of casing member 25.

Although it is contemplated that the eye casing as well as the lever are of stamped metal, it will be appreciated that plastic materials are usable. In such case the rear Wall of the casing could 'be molded with tongue 33 sufliciently flexible so that it could be manually flexed to install the lever 30 thereon. Likewise other changes may be made within the spirit of the invention as will be recognized by persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A unitary rolling eye comprising a casing having front and rear portions, an eyeball in said casing visible at said front portion and pivotally mounted for rolling on a generally vertical axis, a weight carried by said eyeball, a lever pivotally carried by said casing and having a rocking connection with said eyeball so as to be rocked in response to rolling of said eyeball by inertia effect of said weight, a portion of said lever being accessible for connection to a synchronizing member disposed externally of said casing.

2. A rolling eye as set forth in claim 1, said portion of said lever extending outside the rear portion of said casing.

3. A rolling eye as set forth in claim 2, and an identical rolling eye in combination therewith, and a synchronizing member extending between the outside portions of said levers to synchronize the rolling movement of the eyeballs of said rolling eyes.

4. A rolling eye as set forth in claim 3, said member comprising a wire body having a clip formation at each end and a loop formation between said ends, said levers having apertures at said outside portions through which respective clip ends protrude to connect said levers.

5. A rolling eye as set forth in claim 1, said weight having an opening and said lever having a portion inside of said casing and extending through said opening to effect said connection.

6. A rolling eye as set forth in claim 1, said casing having a rear wall, said lever being pivotally supported thereon and having an inside portion extending into said casing, said lever having an outside portion extending exteriorly of said casing and having connecting means for connection to said synchronizing member outside said casing, said inside portion of said lever from said rear wall to said rocking connection with said eye-ball being longer than the outside portion of said lever from said rear wall to said connecting means so as to effect a mechanical advantage for said weight in rocking said lever.

7. A rolling eye as set forth in claim 1, and means for pivotally mounting said lever to said casing comprising a tongue formed of the material of said casing and having an integral trunnion extending therefrom, an aperture through said lever, and said trunnion extending therethrough, said tongue having shoulders for pivotal support of said lever.

8. A rolling eye as set forth in claim 1, and means for securing said rolling eye in a doll head comprising a molded cavity comprised of thin wall flexible material gripping said unitary eye and having a slot through which said accessible portion of said lever extends.

9. A pair of unitary rolling eyes each comprising a casing having front and rear portions, an eyeball in each casing visible at respective front portions and pivotally mounted for rolling on a respective generally vertical axis, a weight carried by each eyeball, a lever pivotally carried by each casing and having a rocking connection with the respective eyeball so as to be rocked in response to rolling of said eyelball by inertia effect of the respective weight, and a synchronizing member connecting said levers to effect synchronized rolling of said eyeballs.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 9/1929 Marcus et a1. 46l68 8/1936 Grubman 46-169 

